What Is Diabetes?
Diabetes can be defined as a group of diseases that result in too much sugar in the blood. But according to the World Health Organization, Diabetes is a chronic, metabolic disease characterized by elevated levels of blood glucose (or blood sugar), which leads over time to serious damage to the heart, blood vessels, eyes, kidneys and nerves.
The most common type of Diabetes is the Type 2 diabetes, usually in adults, which occurs when the body becomes resistant to insulin or doesn't make enough insulin. In the past 3 decades the prevalence of the type 2 diabetes has risen dramatically in countries of all income levels. Type 1 diabetes also known as juvenile diabetes or insulin dependent diabetes, is a chronic condition in which the pancreas produces little or no insulin by itself. For people living with diabetes, access to affordable treatment, including insulin, is critical to their survival. According to the WHO there is a globally agreed target to halt the rise in diabetes and obesity by 2025.
About 422 million people worldwide have diabetes, the majority living in low-and middle income countries, 1.5 million deaths are directly attributed to diabetes each year. Both the number of cases and the prevalence of diabetes have been steadily increasing over the past few decades.